Obviously there have been 'programmable' mechanical music-machines for ages - musical boxes, pianos, etc. But these were not 'computers'. I wouldn't be surprised if this Turing machine was the first, or among the first, electronic general-purpose computers, capable of other tasks but programmed to play music. There must have been earlier programmable electronic machines that were designed only for playing music - i.e. not computers. A cross between a music box and a tone generator? Babbage's Difference Engines were arguably the earliest programmable computers. They must have made a lot of noise. I wonder if Ada Lovelace ever tried making it play a tune? (And could she tell if it started looping?) Was the Antikithera mechanism a computer? Did some Greek astronomer hear music in the turning of its cogs?
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